Monthly Archives: July 2002

July 5, 2002 — John Hinderaker

The Trunk has been eloquent

The Trunk has been eloquent as usual. My thoughts this week have been more mundane, I’m afraid. We went to a 4th of July parade in a small town (considered here a big town) in South Dakota. People said it was the biggest 4th of July parade ever. That reflects the rate of citizen participation; anyone who wants to enter the parade can do so with minimal, if any, pretext »
July 4, 2002 — Scott Johnson

Is there a more beautiful

Is there a more beautiful rendition of an American patriotic song than Ray Charles’s version of “America the Beautiful”? Charles’s version of the song is incredibly moving and powerful. The singing itself distills the essence of American popular music in Charles’s patented style. And in order to overcome the familiarity that prevents us from hearing the words of such songs, Charles begins with the song’s relatively unknown third verse on »
July 3, 2002 — Scott Johnson

In retrospect, many aspects of

In retrospect, many aspects of the Islamofascist war on America that became manifest on 9/11, including the attack on the World Trade Center itself, are almost painfully unsurprising. Laurie Mylroie’s book “Study in Revenge,” for example, examined the evidence introduced against the defendants tried in the 1993 World Trade Center attack and deduced that the 1993 attack constituted a covert Iraqi operation. According to Mylroie, the Clinton administration willfully closed »
July 3, 2002 — John Hinderaker

Of course, they only do

Of course, they only do this because they think religion is a bad thing and they are trying to stamp it out, just as they extend the 8th Amendment to apply to capital punishment only because they themselves oppose it. Where an expansive reading of a Constitutional provision would not advance the liberal agenda, our courts are perfectly capable of adopting a restrictive approach, under which, in modern conditions, the »
July 3, 2002 — John Hinderaker

I would draw an analogy

I would draw an analogy to the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments. This was obviously intended to bar the use of torture–which it has done successfully, since torture has been more or less unheard of in American prisons for two hundred years, and has been roundly condemned wherever it has appeared. However, rather than simply accepting that the 8th Amendment has been successfully implemented, our federal courts »
July 3, 2002 — John Hinderaker

I will add this observation,

I will add this observation, however. It is interesting that the commentators who have pointed out that the 9th Circuit panel’s opinion banning the Pledge was not inconsistent with the logic of various Supreme Court decisions have pretty much all made this point in defense of the panel; few have considered it a reductio ad absurdum that exposed the folly of those Supreme Court decisions themselves. The relevant language of »
July 3, 2002 — John Hinderaker

I’m taking my family to

I’m taking my family to South Dakota for the 4th, in part because South Dakota is a state where it is still legal to blow stuff up with relatively powerful explosives. So the Trunk’s meditations on the Declaration of Independence may be interrupted from time to time by my more banal musings on the joys of gunpowder »
July 2, 2002 — Scott Johnson

I know many readers of

I know many readers of the Power Line (just kidding, girls!) are awaiting my further reflections on the Ninth Circuit’s pledge of allegiance decision. Although the political and journalistic commentary has beaten the decision into the ground, the commentary has articulated an extremely low level of analysis. One interesting facet of the decision is that it only modestly extends the Supreme Court’s misguided First Amendment jurisprudence on the subject of »
July 2, 2002 — John Hinderaker

The news has been pretty

The news has been pretty boring the last few days. Al Gore is back, promising that if the Democrats will only nominate him one more time, he’ll stop watching the polls and obeying his advisers and we’ll finally see the real Gore. No, wait, he really means it this time! Fallout from the school choice decision is mostly boring and predictable: Democrats assuring us that parents everywhere love the public »